I found this quite interesting since it happened in the same year I was born. On this date in 1974, the first product’s barcode was scanned electronically, and it automatically added the price into the system. Thus, we arrived in the “barcode scanner era.” I can’t imagine life without these barcodes. I know that sometimes it gets annoying when they don’t scan correctly, and it is a good idea to check over your receipt (we once caught a 25 dollar mistake on one frozen burrito!), but all in all, it does make checkouts easier. I am one of those strange people who likes self-checkout. Interested in what was scanned and where? It was in Troy, Ohio at a local Marsh grocery store. The item was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum!
For more information:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day–First-Universal-Product-Barcode-Scanned.html
http://www.barcoding.com/information/barcode_history.shtml
http://barcode.com/2009112760/first-barcode-ever-scanned.html
http://famousdaily.com/history/first-upc-scan-wrigleys-chewing-gum.html
Related Articles
4 Comments
-
Wow! It’s hard to imagine grocery shopping before bar codes! Very cool info!
-
I can’t imagine shopping with out a bar code either. My kids like going through self checkout so they can help me scan items.
-
-
Very interesting history fact – I can’t imagine life without barcodes, either.
-
-
I started working at Meijers when I turned 16. They implemented the scanning when I was employed there. At first it was a pain because of all the price changes they did daily. It is so much better now, but it was interesting to be involved with that.
